Dozier was critically injured in a deadly 2006 IED (improvised explo sive device) attack while on patrol with soldiers in Baghdad. The blast killed an American soldier, an Iraqi translator, her cameraman Paul Douglas and sound tech, James Brolan.

She underwent more than two dozen surgeries to repair her leg and has since been covering the State Department and Pentagon beats for CBS News.

Emotionally, much of her own healing is done, she says. She worked a lot of it out during the time she spent writing a book recounting the experience, “Breathing the Fire” (to be publsihed in May).

“At first it was like bleeding on paper,” she says. “I didn’t get to enjoy the writing until the second or third rewrite.”

“CBS and I had a good talk,” she says. “I’d love to do a trip to the green zone or Camp Victory in Iraq, but Baghdad foot-patrol? Not quite yet.

“I’m trying to be as gentle with them [family, friends] as I possibly can, in understanding where they are coming from,” she says. “They get used to thinking of you as a victim and you have to point out – even if you want to punch them – calmly and firmly that: ‘I’m okay’. “